In England, a substantial proportion of school inspections are conducted by current school leaders. This may lead to concerns that this gives their school (about 2% of schools) an advantage in the inspection process when it is their turn to be inspected. Yet scant evidence exists on this issue. This paper thus presents the first evidence on this…

The COVID pandemic temporarily altered the functioning of all sections of society. In England, it led to major disruption in the teacher education sector leading to curtailed training in schools and a rapid shift to alternative approaches to teaching and learning. By the 2021-2022 academic year, it was hoped that activity would return to a level…

This article reports an unprecedented exploratory small-scale investigation of the views of senior school leaders in southwest England relating to 'off-rolling' (illegal exclusionary practices). 'Off-rolling' is conceptualised as a policy technology, however, the conceptual framework used in data analysis derives from Foucault's treatment of power…

Evidence from intervention evaluations suggests that achieving meaningful and lasting social, behavioural and attitudinal change from relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) in schools requires more than just a curriculum. Whole-school approaches appear particularly promising since they work at multiple levels. For instance, they may:…

This paper explores inspection, performativity and fabrication within the context of two English schools. Case studies are employed to compare and contrast the inspection experiences of two teachers at different points in their career trajectories. The paper focuses on comments made by Sir Michael Wilshaw, the head of the Office for Standards in…

Explores scope and reliability of British Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) inspections of British nursery schools; 513 Web posted inspections were coded for content); 33 schools were visited; and basic data collected and matched with that in OFSTED's report. Concludes inspections were inconsistent, sometimes misrepresenting work of…

States that examination results for 3000+ Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) inspected secondary schools, offering General Certificate of Secondary Education student examinations during the 1992 1997 inspection cycle, were modeled statistically. Finds that schools currently with higher or lower achievement averages saw slight improvement.…

This article examines three areas that are of central importance to the pedagogy of the National Literacy Strategy Framework for Teaching (FFT) at primary level: inspection evidence; school effectiveness (SE) research; and child development evidence. Analysis of national inspection reports on the teaching of English illustrates that these cannot…

States that inspection has been an increasingly important feature of central monitoring of education in the 1990s. Examines the technical reliability of inspection processes in initial teacher training drawing extensively on methodology and procedures adopted by the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) between 1996 and 1998. (CMK)

This paper examines theoretical and empirical evidence related to primary teachers' subject knowledge in mathematics and considers the relevance of an audit of higher-level subject knowledge to the subject knowledge required for teaching primary mathematics. Questionnaires and interviews were carried out to determine the views of generalist…

Compares the policies of inspection in Finland and England where the former promotes school self-evaluation and the latter utilizes the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED). Finds that OFSTED inspections affect teacher morale and focus on policies and procedures; in Finland, inspections lack a whole-school strategy but encourage changes in…

Focuses on the British inspection of primary mathematics and provides evidence of the potential tensions among expertise, experience, and baggage at two different levels of interpretation within the inspection process. Finds that 'mathematical baggage' enables inspectors to focus on mathematics in the classroom rather than on general aspects of…